


Survivor's Float

by jo2ukes



Category: Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, First Kiss, if u notice that i accidentally changed tenses no u didnt <3, it is what it is, sometimes ur at the pool and u have a gay awakening, they're in lesbians your honor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:34:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27234307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jo2ukes/pseuds/jo2ukes
Summary: “Can you imagine? Me? Drowning?” she tries to laugh, but suddenly all the possible ways she could drown- or the ways someone else could drown her- are swimming to the surface of her thoughts.“You’re not going to die,” Sakura says evenly. The way she speaks, the confidence in her voice, it’s like she knows this for a fact. Hina swims up to the edge of the pool, looking up at Sakura from the water. Sakura’s exuding the same air of confidence she always does.“I won’t let anything happen to you,” Sakura leans down, a smile tugging at one corner of her mouth.
Relationships: Asahina Aoi/Ogami Sakura
Comments: 12
Kudos: 68





	Survivor's Float

Hina finishes her seventh lap in record time. Not that she’s tracking her time  _ too  _ seriously. Instead, it’s nice to focus on the pleasant, familiar burn settling into her muscles. She flips over onto her back and floats, staring up at the empty white lights. It makes sense that Hope’s Peak Academy would have a pool. Obviously, it would, it’s a prestigious school. It just seems… weird given the current situation and everything. Like, it’s easy to forget where she is. But of all the things Hina could complain about right now, this certainly isn’t one of them. 

She almost wonders what time it is, but opts to shut her eyes instead, listening to the water sloshing around her. It’s an easy way to take her mind off things. She knows some of the others probably think her mind isn’t  _ on  _ things as much as it could be. And maybe they have a point. But who wants to think about all that stuff? It’s not like she’s good at it anyway. Plus, she doesn’t want to think about which one of her classmates will be the next to commit murder. What happened to Sayaka and Leon is shocking enough-- the thought of it happening  _ again…  _ well, it’s easier to just let the pool water lap at her skin. It’s nicer to just float on her back, listening to the quiet buzz of the fluorescent lights shining down on her. 

The heave of her chest slows and she’s  _ tired.  _ Not of swimming. Not really. It’s a different kind of exhaustion. One that she’s not used to. The kind of tired she feels isn’t one you can really fight your way out of, there’s no resistance exercises, no training. You just have to live with it. Or try not to think about it. Or both.

And so here she is, alone in the middle of a pool, in the middle of this school, wondering when the other shoe is going to drop. Somehow she doubts she and her classmates will really manage to live here forever without anyone else dying. Maybe she thought it was a possibility in the beginning, but… time has proven things are a little more complicated. But she doesn’t want to think about that. She doesn’t want to think like that and sink into despair. 

She sighs and rolls over onto her stomach, feeling the bubbles of air push out of her nose and letting the cool pressure of the pool water press against her face and chest. She opens her eyes, the water stinging at first, but the floor of the pool comes into view, tinged blue. She watches the white lines of the water dance across the tiles, feeling her heartbeat echo through her whole body. Occasionally, strands of her loose hair dance into her vision.

She wishes she were anywhere else.

She closes her eyes.

_ “The next half is called a dead man’s float. It’s easy,” she tells him, walking deeper into the water. “You just kind of… let go. Your body does all the work for you.” _

_ Yuta throws her a look of disbelief, still timid, still afraid to stand by her where the water would come up to his chin. He’s usually eager to throw himself at whatever sport or skill she’s testing out. Instead, he just stands rooted to the pool steps. _

_ “I’ll show you. You don’t need to be scared. You just don’t think about it. If you think, you sink, that’s my motto,” she laughs. _

_ With that, she bends her knees, bowing at the waist, and pushes her face into the pool water. It’s easy. She just trusts herself. Trusts her body. Trusts her instincts. And just like always, they do their part.  _

_ As she pushes down into the water, she can feel herself buoyed up, the gentle sloshing of the pool rocking her body back and forth. She splays out her arms, curving her back and letting her legs dangle in the deep water. The sun hits her back, drying the droplets on her skin. Her heart drums in her ears and her fingers feel weightless. _

_ She closes her eyes and counts. But only half pays attention to the numbers that drift through her thoughts. She likes this, the weightlessness. The nothingness that she can surround herself with before making the more concentrated switch to the float on her back- the survivor’s float. _

_ So she stays like this. She can hold her breath long enough. She’s practiced. She’s counted. She likes pushing herself right to the edge anyway. _

Hina.

_ She ignores the muffled sound of her name drifting to her eardrums. _

Hina.

_ She ignores the fingers gently tapping at her shoulder. Yuta knows she can hold her breath longer than this. _

Hina.

_ She wants to be mad at him, breaking the illusion, interrupting the bliss of just… floating there. If he could try it for himself, he’d understand-  _

-Her eyes snap open as she realizes she’s being lifted out of the water with ease, but she can tell whoever is grabbing at her is in a panic. Hina’s first instinct is to panic too, but she remembers where she is. When she is. Who she’s with. It’s just Sakura. Well, probably. No one else would be up this early. Or late? She has no idea what time it is. But it really couldn’t be any of the others. Sakura is the only one who will work out with her- they keep inviting Chihiro, who looks like she  _ wants  _ to say yes and come with them, but always manages to come up with an excuse. She and Sakura never push the matter.

“Hina,” the low rumble of Sakura’s voice hits her again, while she’s still blinking water out of her eyes. It must have been Sakura actually calling for her… not Yuta. She offers up a silent plea for him to  _ please  _ be okay, and does her best to ignore the knot forming in her stomach.

“Are you alright?” Sakura asks, lifting Hina up until she’s sitting on the edge of the pool. Immediately her hands come to Hina’s face, brushing wet strands of hair off her cheeks. Hina realizes with a jolt that Sakura was only half ready- she’d changed into a swimsuit, but still had her arm wraps and shoes on. She must have been in a hurry...

“Did something… happen?” Hina’s almost afraid to ask the question. She hadn’t heard any announcement from Monokuma but, then again, she hadn’t been paying much attention just now. It’s only been a day or so since Sayaka and Leon…

“I  _ thought  _ something had happened. I’m glad I was wrong,” Sakura replies, her nerves visibly calming.

“Oh, that? I was just…” Hina lets her voice trail off. Walking into the pool and seeing Hina floating like that probably wasn’t the most pleasant of surprises. She’d probably lose it if she saw Sakura floating like that. “Huh. Well, they don’t call it the dead man’s float for nothing, I guess.”

Her lighthearted joke falls a little flatter than she’d wanted it to.

“I’m fine, Sakura,” she reassures, in as firm a voice as she can muster. She grabs Sakura’s hands and holds them still in her own.

Wordlessly, Sakura lifts herself out of the pool, sitting beside Hina at the edge. 

“Sorry,” she mutters sheepishly, not quite able to meet Sakura’s gaze. She looks down at their joined hands, lacing her fingers through Sakura’s. “I guess I didn’t think about… what that might look like.”

In her defense, it  _ is  _ technically half of the survivor’s float. She thinks about telling that to Sakura, but somehow she doubts that will help anything. She feels bad making her worry like that. 

Sakura is silent, for a moment, before pulling her hands away. Not harshly, just away. Hina’s skin feels cold. She watches as Sakura tucks her hair behind her ear and wrings the pool water out of the ends. It splatters loudly in the pronounced silence. Hina hates it when things are serious like this. She hates knowing she’s the cause of it all, too.

“I probably overreacted,” Sakura hums. “I know you’re a capable person.” She smiles at Hina.

“Well, I mean, if I  _ do  _ die, I can promise you it won’t be in a pool.” She slides back into the water as if to prove her point. 

“Can you imagine? Me? Drowning?” she tries to laugh, but suddenly all the possible ways she could drown- or the ways someone  _ else _ could drown her- are swimming to the surface of her thoughts.

“You’re not going to die,” Sakura says evenly. The way she speaks, the confidence in her voice, it’s like she knows this for a fact. Hina swims up to the edge of the pool, looking up at Sakura from the water. Sakura’s exuding the same air of confidence she always does.

“I won’t let anything happen to you,” Sakura leans down, a smile tugging at one corner of her mouth.

She’s really pretty. Sakura is. Hina thinks Sakura probably never worries about any of the silly things she does. Sakura’s just… herself. She’s really strong, but really sweet, and she’s serious, but she does this thing where she has to bring her fingers up to her lips and cover a smile sometimes after Hina says something ridiculous. And Hina feels safe saying ridiculous things around Sakura. And she likes the way Sakura’s fingers just barely touch her lips as she hides her smile. She likes the dimples that show up only on the left side of Sakura’s face.

Hina holds her gaze, studying her blue eyes. She feels… calm. She always does around Sakura. There’s just something about her. She’s kind of like Hina’s own personal ray of hope. A source of strength. Something that keeps her going even with the constant threat of death looming overhead. She just feels safe. She wonders if she makes Sakura feel that way too. Or if Sakura even feels  _ worried  _ about this game they’re all playing.

“Are you scared of  _ anything _ ?” the question bubbles out of her mouth before she has a chance to think about it. But it’s Sakura. Sakura doesn’t mind that sort of thing. As if to prove Hina right, Sakura lets out a short laugh.

“I would think what happened just now would suffice as an answer to that question.”

There’s something about the way Sakura is grinning at her, something about the glint in her eye, and all Hina can think about is kissing her. She’s thought about it before, of course. And every time, she’s come up with a million reasons  _ not  _ to kiss her. But now that things are  _ actually  _ set in motion, now that the fact that everything could all end tomorrow- heck, even a few hours from now- all of the excuses that float up to her mind seem kind of stupid. 

Hina isn’t brave, that’s definitely not a word she’d use to describe herself, but something digs at the pit of her stomach. What if she  _ doesn’t  _ kiss Sakura now? What if she never gets to? And if she doesn’t, how will she explain how she feels? How could she possibly convey how grateful she is to have someone like Sakura watching over her and making sure she’s happy?

She pushes all the thoughts out of her head- something she  _ knows  _ she’s good at- and pulls herself partway out of the pool. All she knows is her brain keeps circling back and zeroing in on one singular thought: she  _ really  _ wants to kiss Sakura. She’s wanted to kiss her for a long time.

And so, she lets go. Her actions come to her like instinct. Her wet hands slap loudly against the tile that lines the edge of the pool and she tries not to think about how warm Sakura’s thighs feel against her waist. She feels like she’s floating as she cranes her neck upward and as she closes her eyes and presses her lips against Sakura’s. A familiar weightlessness flows through her limbs.

It’s just for a second.

Just the briefest second, but there’s no move from Sakura, no reaction, and all these thoughts start flooding Hina’s mind, her brain screaming at her to pull away. People… usually immediately react when you kiss them, right? Or they do when they  _ like  _ the kiss… Oh,  _ god _ ...

“Sorry,” Hina’s eyes widen and she takes a few comically slow steps back, the water resistance hindering any sort of speed she  _ could  _ have had, and her hands snap up to cover her mouth. Sakura blinks a couple of times, but her expression is even-keeled. Her limbs feel like lead and she’s drowning in countless panicked thoughts.

It was probably a bad kiss. Hina’s had no practice, and there’s all these ways you can mess up kissing, like using too much tongue. Or not enough. And she hadn’t used  _ any.  _ But you’re not supposed to use tongue on the first kiss, right? That’s what she’d heard. Plus it’d be weird. She hadn’t really thought through the whole ‘kissing Sakura’ thing up until that point either, which maybe also made it awful. She was just going off instinct, but of  _ course  _ she has no instinct for kissing people. She’s never done it before. She probably read the moment all wrong and-

The gentle feeling of Sakura’s hands on her hips pulls Hina out of her thoughts. In fact, she has no thoughts left. She just looks up at Sakura who must have slid from her perch at the edge of the pool and walked to stand in front of Hina; her expression is unreadable, but the distance between the two of them is closing fast.

When their lips connect again, Hina almost laughs. Because it’s funny. There’s no fireworks in her head, no breath that comes whooshing out of her lungs, just  _ warmth.  _ Real warmth spreading across her skin, through her chest, down to her toes. It’s  _ nice.  _ The weightless feeling returns to her limbs and the gentle slosh of the pool water pushes them closer together. 

She just lets go. 

It’s instinct.

She wraps her arms around Sakura’s shoulders and her legs follow suit, wrapping around Sakura’s waist. She listens to the sound of her heartbeat drumming in her ears, relishing in the  _ nothing  _ that surrounds her. It’s just Sakura. Sakura holding her, Sakura  _ kissing  _ her.

_ If you think, you sink. _

The thought surfaced in her mind once more, her worries from a few seconds ago laughable. She and Sakura have never talked about how they felt about each other- obviously they knew they cherished each other as friends. They fit together so easily and so quickly. Maybe that’s why her instinct was right- Sakura wanted to kiss her too.

She finally giggles into the kiss, and Sakura pulls back, her expression quizzical.

“I feel like I’m floating,” is the only explanation Hina offers up. Sakura laughs, gently pressing her forehead against Hina’s.

“Listen, I know you’re super brave and super strong, and you have nothing to worry about,” Hina speaks again, taking a strand of Sakura’s silvery hair in between her fingers and twirling it gently, “And it might not mean much, but I’ve got your back too.” 

Sakura’s eyes widen ever so slightly, and it looks like she’s blushing. She can’t really muster a response, it seems, but she flashes a smile and hums her gratitude. Hina feels so happy her chest might explode. She presses a kiss to Sakura’s cheek before unwrapping her legs and letting her feet hit the tile of the pool floor.

“Now,” Hina says, stretching her arms, ready to put her newfound burst of energy to use. She turns toward the far end of the pool, “let’s see if you can beat me to the other side.”

**Author's Note:**

> *shows up to the danganronpa fandom 10 years late with starbucks* So, how 'bout those lesbians, huh??? i love them very much!!!
> 
> (anyways, i just got into these games and i shitpost about them on twitter sometimes: @j02ukes)


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